We have an infographic that demonstrates we are in The Mobile Age. Smartphone users, who love their phones (two billion, with a “b”), use them for two hours a day. This fact could mean that the ONLY Customer Experience (CX) people have with you might be a mobile experience.
Organizations today cannot afford to ignore their Mobile User Experience (UX) another usage minute.
Check out these numbers for smartphone users in the U.S.:
Across the pond, the numbers are also staggering. According to OfCom, the UK’s communications regulator, the UK is a mobile society. Two-thirds of the adult population in the UK had a smartphone, an increase of 27 percentage points since 2012. That means that 66% of the adults in the UK are most likely to access your organization through your mobile experience. To read the whole report, click here.
None of this is a big surprise to you is it? EVERYONE knows we love our phones. Chances are, you are reading this on your mobile right now.
Despite the ubiquity of the smartphone, many organizations haven’t examined how their user experience is performing for the UX (and ultimately the CX!). From apps to social media sites to the mobile version of their site, organizations often expect them to do all the same things a desktop version does; same functionality, fewer pixels, as it were.
But mobile doesn’t work just like a desktop, does it? For example, my fat fingers lack the accuracy on the screen they enjoy on my full-sized keys at home. I get around this by dictating a lot of my data entry when I am mobile. We all know how accurate that can be, don’t we? (Adding my British accent in only adds to the fun of the output!)
So if your mobile site has the same forms with the same amount of data entry required as your desktop versions, you are essentially designing a frustrating experience for your mobile UX deliberately.
Frustrated is not an emotion that leads to the right things in a UX or, for that matte
Important Goals for Your Mobile UX
There are three key words to remember as it pertains to your mobile UX:
Efficient, Accessible, Secure
Why are these three so important? You can answer this question for yourself. Consider a time when:
…You were trying to perform a function on the mobile and it took ten times longer than it would have on your desktop. Were you pleased or perturbed?
…You waited FOREVER for the graphics to load. Or didn’t wait and bailed. Were you patient or preemptive?
….You suddenly realized that you were using a lot of private information on a public transmission? Were you pleasant or P.O.’d?
When considering how you felt in each of these situations (particularly if you were perturbed, preemptive, or P.O.’d), how do you remember your experience with that mobile site? Are you going back? My guess is probably not.
TechTarget had a great article with tips that help you design a mobile UX that doesn’t make your customers throw all their toys out of the crib. They range from things like, “speed over spectacle” to “avoiding technical jargon,” to common sense advice like, “if something looks odd, users won’t trust it.”
But perhaps the most important thing to take away from the article is that good mobile UX requires building trust with your customers. This trust is built with good communication, and, of course, efficiency, accessibility, and security. Just like in real-life moments with customers in a store or on a call, and even desktop interactions, like a website interface or chat, your mobile UX needs to make your customers feel a certain way. These feelings need to lead to trust.
You can see why the mobile experience should be a big priority for any brand that wants to make a great impression with their Customers. It’s the rising channel, the pathway to your brand experience, and the place where you are likely to make a first impression for your brand. After all, your mobile experience might be your customer’s ONLY experience.
The question becomes what experience are they having with yours?
If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in the following blogs:
Mobile Experience: Harnessing The Power of Your Mobile Channel to Increase Traffic in Retail Stores
The Rise of Mobile Customers and How to Reach Them
Colin Shaw is the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world’s leading Customer experience consultancy & training organizations. Colin is an international author of five bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker.
Follow Colin Shaw on Twitter & Periscope @ColinShaw_CX
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